


heavy

by brahe



Category: Now You See Me (Movies)
Genre: A sort of AU, Emotions, Team as Family, dylan rhodes needs a hug tbh, feat. various fbi agents, i guess, mentions of faking death, team bonding ftw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 16:21:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7445806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brahe/pseuds/brahe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Dylan hadn't known Jack was going to fake his death?</p>
            </blockquote>





	heavy

**Author's Note:**

> ok this is a really short piece but the idea wouldn't leave me alone. i kept imagining what dylan would have felt if he hadn't known the car crash and jack's death were planned, so i wrote this thing as a sort of au where dylan doesn't know. it didn't really go how i planned and i'll probably go back and write a better one, but for now have some of my dylan rhodes feels

 Dylan watches the car go up in flames with a sinking feeling of dread. This wasn't a part of his plan. There's a body in that car, and it's his fault that it's burning.

He runs on autopilot, the part of him that needs to play the frustrated agent using his grief as fuel for his angry shouting. He's devastated underneath all those layers, though. No one was supposed to get hurt like this, and the fact weighs heavy on him.

  
The lack of care his fellow agents have about the death of this _kid_ add to the fire, and he does his best to lash out at everyone. This is wrong, so wrong, and it's starting to ache. He hopes the agents attribute the cracking in his voice and the shaking of his hands to anger, and not the overwhelming guilt-ridden grief threatening to consume him.

 

*

 

Later, he sees the video of the remaining Horsemen, and the ache grows deeper. Daniel chokes up halfway through, and Henley barely says a word. Dylan wants to shut it off, turn away, but he can't expose himself. He's caught in between two feelings, two personalities, and he wants to scream. If it wouldn't threaten the safety of the other three, he would turn himself in now. Jack's death is on his hands, and Dylan knows he won't be able to live with that.

Instead, he steels his jaw and prepares for the final act. This one's for Jack, and now more than ever Dylan wants to see it completed. Maybe, he thinks, Jack's death won't be for nothing. Maybe finishing this will help to ease his conscious.It doesn't.

 

*

 

When four Horsemen walk up to him in Central Park, Dylan almost stumbles. They don't know him as this person, and they're stuttering and tripping over words as they really meet him for the first time. But Dylan has known them since day one, picked them and shaped them and pushed them to become the great magicians that stand before him.

  
All he can focus on is the sound of Jack's breathing. It shatters that heavy ache in his chest, and Dylan half runs forward, pulling Jack into his arms and holding him there. He can feel his heart beating against his chest, and the rise and fall of his chest as his lungs fill and deflate.

  
He realizes the awkwardness when Jack begins to fidget.

  
"Sorry," Dylan says. He lets Jack out of the hug, but keeps his hands tight around his arms.

  
"You're actually alive." The observation comes with the deepest sigh of relief, and Dylan squeezes Jack's arms.

  
"Of course I'm alive," Jack replies, and he looks confused underneath that brilliant smile.

  
"I didn't, that wasn't, I thought..."

  
Jack's eyes soften with realization, and Dylan can feel the atmosphere around them relax as the Horsemen understand and back down.

  
_"_ We needed a way to lose you," Daniel says, explaining their addition to the plan. "We didn't know you were you, obviously."

  
"Yeah, no, I mean...yeah, I get it." Dylan sounds anything but the polished leader he should be. This isn't how he expected this to go.

  
They're all staring at him and he realizes they're waiting for his opinion, his approval. He sighs, and with the air that leaves his lungs, the last of the guilt leaves him too. His Horsemen are alive and well, breathing and in one piece. It's a kind of relief he enter thought he'd get.

  
Now that he knows Jack is alive, he allows himself to see the event on the bridge through different eyes. He nods, a small smile on his face.

  
"That was pretty awesome," he says, and their bright grins bring a proud one to his own lips. Not only are the Horsemen talented magicians good at following instructions, they're clever and fast on their feet.

  
"Yeah?" Jack asks, almost like he doesn't believe him.

"Yeah," Dylan nods. There's a brief cheer as hugs and high fives are passed around the group. Dylan watches and thinks about how he hasn't smiled this much since his age was lower than double digits.

When their attention turns back to them, he steps back. "Are you ready to join the Eye?" he says, and they follow him onto the carousel, smiling and laughing. This, this is really what he waited thirty years for.


End file.
